Sentence handed down for April firearm discharge arrest

A Jacksonville man accused of firing a gun at another person in April has been sentenced.

Sixty-five-year-old Larry Rees of the 2000 block of East Woodland Lake pleaded guilty to a charge of reckless discharge of a firearm this afternoon in Morgan County Court.

Rees was sentenced to 18 months in the Illinois Department of Corrections with credit for 50 days served in the Morgan County Jail. He was also ordered to serve one year of mandatory supervised release.

Rees changed his original “not guilty” plea that he had entered last month. A charge of aggravated discharge of a firearm was dismissed as part of the new plea deal. Rees avoided a possible fifteen-year sentence as a result.

Rees was accused of threatening another resident with a firearm at the East Woodland Lake residence on April 25th. He allegedly fired the gun near the resident and then fired at her twice more inside the home.

Morgan County State’s Attorney Robert Bonjean says the resident took Rees into her home to care for him, and it became an abusive relationship. He says there were prior incidents of Rees firing guns at the home that went unreported.